Becoming a solicitor and barrister in New Zealand

How it started?

Seven years ago, I was drafting my final LLM essays while applying for jobs in the New Zealand legal industry.

I had two interviews. One went quite badly, I was nervous and unprepared. The second interview changed my life forever. After that interview, I received an offer to join Simpson Grierson’s Commercial team as a solicitor with foreign qualification. At the time, it was one of the biggest opportunities I could imagine.

I could not believe it. A Mexican lawyer working in New Zealand? As soon as I received the offer, I felt all sorts of emotions. I was excited, but the very familiar impostor syndrome quickly appeared and filled my mind with intrusive thoughts. I was not sure whether I would be able to adapt to a different legal system and work in English at the same level I had worked in Spanish back home in Mexico.

At that time, I thought this experience would be temporary, something that would look great on my CV before returning home in a year or two. When my partner and I moved to New Zealand, we had no intention of staying permanently.

The Journey

While working at Simpson Grierson, I applied to the New Zealand Council of Legal Education (NZCLE) for an assessment of my overseas law qualifications. This was not a minor task.

I still have at home a copy of the documents I had translated, certified and sent to the NZCLE, a pile approximately five centimetres thick. In October 2020, I received a letter from the NZCLE requiring me to complete all core papers and undertake the Professional Legal Studies Course. The following year, in 2021, I enrolled at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). I was excited about this new challenge, although I was not  sure what to expect or how to approach it. Trusts was my first paper.

Adapting to the New Zealand study style was not easy. Not only had I studied in a civil law jurisdiction and now needed to study in a common law system, but I was also constantly comparing what I was learning with what I had studied back home and trying to make sense of all this new information. I realised I needed to shift my mindset. I was there to do my best, not to prove anything to anyone. I needed to pass these papers to become a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and obtain my New Zealand practising certificate. Understanding this goal changed everything for me. I became strategic. I bought books that helped me understand the fundamentals, prepare for exams and pass the courses.

Back home, I had been an A+ student in law school. This time, while working full-time, I simply did not have the time or energy to read every case in detail or prepare perfectly for every lecture and workshop. Still, I did my best to learn as much as possible and make the experience worthwhile.

Do not get me wrong, I still wanted to perform to the best of my ability while balancing work and life. In the end, my grades ranged from B- to A-.

My experience was a mixture of emotions and lessons.

Positive Experiences

• It was insightful to understand how law is studied in a common law jurisdiction.
• There were textbooks with condensed versions of the theory covered in each paper. These books became essential because they gave me the information I needed to prepare my notes and pass the exams.
• I met other foreign lawyers going through the same process of completing the core papers to be admitted in New Zealand, and this made the experience much happier. I met people from South Africa, Colombia, Brazil, India, China and many other countries.
• The experience expanded my vocabulary and increased my understanding of the New Zealand legal system.
• I learned a lot from New Zealand students both younger and mature students by listening to their perspectives, experiences and views of the world.

Challenges

• The process of completing the NZCLE requirements took a long time and studying all these papers while working full-time was challenging. At the same time, I was progressing my legal career, I would spend two hours in lectures one day and another hour at workshops on a different day. 
• Assignments, mid-term and final exams, together with all the preparation involved, required a significant amount of time, energy and willpower to sit down after work, read my notes, attend lectures and workshops and prepare for assignments and exams.
• At times, it was frustrating to study papers unrelated to my corporate and commercial practice. 
• This was also not an inexpensive experience. I was fortunate that my employers supported my studies financially, even though I was not a resident and had to pay international student fees, which were three or four times higher than domestic fees.

Final Thoughts
After sitting my final Public Law exam, the last paper I completed at AUT, I sat down and reflected on the journey. I feel proud of achieving this milestone. At the same time, the experience left me with many questions about whether there could be a better pathway for foreign trained lawyers entering the New Zealand legal industry.

This is ultimately a question for the NZCLE and the New Zealand Law Society. Could there be a more efficient and less painful process, not only emotionally and intellectually, but also financially? Many foreign lawyers are on temporary visas and must pay international university fees. Although my employers viewed supporting me through this process as an investment and development opportunity, not every law firm or company sees it that way.

There is also a broader question for those wanting to practise in areas outside the restricted areas of law: is obtaining a New Zealand practising certificate always necessary? Some highly talented foreign lawyers have worked in New Zealand leading law firms for many years without obtaining one. I believe this is an opportunity to reflect on what the best pathway forward should look like. 

Given the shortage of lawyers with four to ten years’ experience (partly because many New Zealand lawyers move overseas for other opportunities) could New Zealand benefit from allowing more foreign lawyers to bring their international experience into the profession? 

Like other countries (for example, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia), New Zealand could benefit from lawyers with international backgrounds bringing new perspectives, ideas, experience and skills into an industry that increasingly needs creativity and fresh thinking.

 
Acknowledgements 

The practising certificate may only have my name on it, but this was a collective effort. I would not be here without the support of the following people.

• My Husband - Jorge: Thank you for all your support and encouragement during the moments when I thought I could not make it. Thank you for believing in me, for waking up early and staying up late to prepare breakfast and dinner, for listening to all my thoughts, and for supporting me while I prepared for exams and assignments. Thank you for taking me to exams and cheering me up when I felt things were not going well.

• Simpson Grierson and Wynn Williams: Thank you for supporting my journey financially and for allowing me to attend lectures and workshops. I hope more foreign lawyers are given similar opportunities and that more law firms and partners allow them to demonstrate their full potential, experience and transferable skills. To Michael Sage, thank you for giving me the opportunity to join your team, for being an exceptional mentor and for supporting me throughout this journey. To my moving counsel, Kimberley Wong, thank you for your support and for giving me the opportunity to work with you and the team.

• My family and friends: I feel honoured and proud of who I am and where I come from. To my mother, who has always been my role model and shown me that everything is possible with discipline and dedication. Thank you to my friends in Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, France and the United States for your support and encouragement. You inspire me to continue dreaming big and undertaking new opportunities and challenges.

• Pink Fern community: To all the foreign lawyers I have met through work, study and networking events and to everyone who has reached out to share their experiences or seek guidance, THANK YOU. Please remember that you are not alone and that this process becomes much easier when we go through it together. Thank you for your support, your kind words and for helping build a community of incredibly talented people.

Maria Nieto